In hip replacement surgery where the head and neck of the posterior femur are removed and replaced with a prosthetic implant it is desirable that the implant be secured against rotational movement. A procedure and apparatus for torsionally testing a seated prosthetic hip implant has been developed to cure this problem and forms the subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,898 issued to Dunn. As described in the Dunn Patent an adapter having parallel legs is fitted over the neck of a prosthetic hip implant after the implant has been seated. A torque wrench is connected to the adapter and torque applied to the implant. A properly seated implant will sustain 60 inch pounds of torque for a period of 15 seconds as described in Dunn. A problem exists, however, in that the neck of the implant may become scratched or otherwise marred when the adapter is attached. Scratches or imperfections in the surface of a prosthetic hip stem implant may create stress risers leading to a weakened implant.
Another problem with prior art hip stems is that during seating of the implant the surgeon is left to axially align the implant. The absence of alignment indicia could result in slight axial misalignment of the implant requiring its reseating.